We’ve Been Carving Our Turkeys Wrong: Chef Reveals What We Should Be Doing

Carving a turkey is the pinnacle of any Thanksgiving feast. After days of gathering ingredients and hours of preparation, it’s finally time to enjoy all of your hard work. But if you don’t have a solid plan of attack when it comes to carving the bird, Chef Mark Dommen will probably say, “you’re doing it all wrong!”

Fortunately, Chef Mark is here to teach us the secrets tricks for carving a turkey the right way. Now you’ll be a carving and cooking master on Thanksgiving…

Before you jump right into the carving technique itself, it’s important to discuss what many of us do wrong from the get-go. One of the most important factors in carving the perfect turkey is the knife you use to do so. A dull knife can shred the tender meat and leave the crunchy skin flopped to the bottom of the plate.

You need to have a freshly sharpened knife on-deck for carving – that’s rule number one.

Next, we need to address where you cut into the turkey. If you’re the type of person to carve at the dining table while your loved ones look up to you like a Thanksgiving Day hero, you’ll have to think again. Chef Mark says if you carve your turkey in the dining room, “you’re doing it all wrong!”

Instead, try carving the bird in the kitchen before sitting down for the meal. This will give you plenty of room to make even slices and you won’t feel eager eyes pressuring you to cut everything perfectly. The last tip before diving into carving technique is to cook the stuffing correctly.

You’ll want to cook the stuffing to the side of the turkey, not inside of it. Doing so will allow for a crispier texture and both items will cook better separately. It also makes serving a breeze!

Now it’s time to tackle the important part: carving your Thanksgiving turkey! First, you’ll want to remove the legs from the bird. Once these are cleanly removed, you can cut the breasts away from the rest with one slice along the keel bone.

After the breasts are gone, slice against the grain to create your flawlessly sized portions. Once these sections are divided, you can place the pieces back together to make it look just as beautiful as the second you took it out of the over.

Viola! Now you’re sure to have a yummy Thanksgiving turkey. One that literally looks good enough to eat!

Take a peek at this helpful Thanksgiving video for yourself below. We’ll all be carving masters this year!